Category Archives: Publishing House

Major Publishing Houses to independent authors are experiencing a dynamic shift in the publishing economy due to eBooks. Articles and analysis from:

The Next Web” The ebook also allows authors to skip over other hurdles, including the very cold reality that most offline retailers won’t stock a self-published book on their shelves. Though online retailers like the Kindle and Nook stores can still give preferential treatment for major publishers, they’re able to provide a wide swath of inventory from the long tail. “

The Province” For the better part of a decade, many people have been predicting the end of traditional publishing and the rise of the ebook. That moment appears to have finally arrived, thanks to the popularity of the Kindle and other ereaders, as well as the iPad. “

The Huffington Post” Do authors still need publishers in this new world order? I think it all goes back to my first question. To survive and thrive, publishers big and small must do for authors what authors cannot or will not do for themselves. ”

Newbie’s Guide to Publishing ” These days, signing with a publisher, who will give you an advance in return for the majority of all your royalties, forever, isn’t lucky at all. It’s like signing a balloon loan, where the payments get bigger every year. Or a life insurance policy, where you keep paying more annually for fewer benefits. ”

Nathan Bransford” Publishers can explain their costs and how e-books don’t save them much money until they’re blue in the face, but on a gut level many people simply don’t believe an e-book should cost $12.99. It feels too expensive. A lot of people will simply not buy one or even go and pirate a copy because they feel like they’re being ripped off. “

Divine Caroline” How long will it be before writers go directly into the route of independent publishing and sidestep the traditional publishers altogether? Before you tell me that will never happen, let me ask you how many twenty-somethings have a land line in their home? When you ask them if they have a land line, their answer is liable to be, “What for?” This just might be the same question many young writers begin to ask when considering the often discouraging, and always time-consuming route of submitting manuscripts to traditional publishing houses. “What for?”

CNET has an article discussing the latest trends in eBook pricing. From the article:

” None of this bodes well for the publishing industry. Why? Well, 99 cents and $2.99 works for self-published authors, but it’s probably not going to cut it for traditional publishers or the authors who sign on with them. “

Mark Cuban has a very interesting article on Business Insider where he discusses the potential for eBooks to be sold as an ‘all you can read” subscription service delivered from the Amazon cloud. From the article:

” Why not ? Download and read any book you want from our collection of 10s of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands. When you are done with it. “Return it” by simply deleting it from your library and pick another to read. Read as much as you want as fast as you want. Add our kids subscription for another $1 per month. More than one kid, get one for each ! “

The Wall Street Journal” The government interest comes amid a broad move by publishers toward a so-called agency model, in which publishers set prices for e-books. That results in widely uniform prices for consumers. Regulators are examining whether those arrangements unduly restrict competition. “

The Register” Many observers expected the arrival in Europe of Amazon’s Kindle, and therefore increasing electronic sales, to result in falling prices for ebooks. “

Reuters” No deadline had been set for completing the probe, which would depend on how much the companies involved cooperated with the Commission. “

Guardian.co.uk has an interesting article about British author Stephen Leather who decided to publish several novellas on the Kindle platform and had breakout success. From the article:

” To maximise sales, he priced his books at Amazon’s minimum for independent writers – about 70p (the equivalent of 99 cents). At this level, authors receive a cut of only 35% of the price; under Amazon’s pricing structure, this rises to 70% if they price their books above the equivalent of $2.99. He then went on various forums to drum up awareness. “

Rethink Books has an interesting article about right now being “the Napster Moment” for the publishing industry. Many interesting and valid points. From the article:

” The ‘Napster moment’ here, is a realisation that consumers can’t be manipulated and now demand ‘my world’. They are informed, eclectic, discerning and they can now find needles in digital haystacks and can virally inform and recommend in ways marketers often can only dream of. It is a case of moving from mass marketing to direct marketing in a market you can’t control. “